In six matches so far, Shardul Thakur has picked up 11 wickets at an economy rate of 10.38.
Shardul, who went unsold in the IPL 2025 mega auction, joined LSG as a replacement for injured fast bowler Mohsin Khan. He hasn’t let the franchise down as he is the second-highest wicket-taker of the tournament and the most successful among seamers.
Thakur was also impressive in LSG’s six-wicket victory over Gujarat Titans (GT) on Saturday (April 12) at the Ekana Cricket Stadium. He claimed the scalps of Sherfane Rutherford and Rahul Tewatia to return with figures of 4-0-34-2.
“I’ve always believed that, as a bowling unit, we’ve bowled well throughout the season. A lot of times in commentary, there’s criticism — they try to be hard on the bowlers. But you have to understand that cricket is moving in a certain direction where 200+ scores are becoming more common,” Shardul said in the post-match press conference.
“Credit to us that we’ve defended scores on two occasions when we batted first. We put up a good score, the pitch became better for batting, and even with drastic changes, we managed to defend — one game by 10 runs, one by 4 runs in Kolkata. So it was about holding our nerve till the end and believing in ourselves that we could win the game, provided we got an important wicket or bowled a key over.
“And like you said, criticism will always be there — especially from commentators. It’s easy to sit in a studio and comment on someone’s bowling, but they don’t see the real picture out there on the ground. I’m sure they should look at their own stats before criticising anyone,” he added.
In six matches so far, Shardul Thakur has picked up 11 wickets at an economy rate of 10.38. The victory over GT lifted LSG to third place on the points table with four victories in six games.
LSG’s next match is scheduled against Chennai Super Kings at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Monday (April 14).